


International Heist

by aro_through_the_heart



Category: Thunderbirds, thunderbirds are go
Genre: Alternate Universe - Criminals, Alternate Universe - Spies & Secret Agents, Alternate Universe - Thieves, Angst, Gen, Heist, Hurt/Comfort, Implied/Referenced Character Death, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, John kinda is EOS in this, Theft, They share one brain cell between them and it's penelope's, also only one of them could have the last name tracy and it was awarded to scott, it'll make sense when you read it, sorry to the rest of you, there is no heist au tag
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-02-16
Updated: 2020-02-16
Packaged: 2021-02-28 01:46:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,982
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22745752
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/aro_through_the_heart/pseuds/aro_through_the_heart
Summary: What do you get when you combine three orphans, two runaways, a hacker, and a mission to stop a plague?Casey if afraid to know the answer(Or, the heist AU idea that wouldn't leave me alone, and involves angst and stupid plans)
Relationships: Penelope Creighton-Ward/Gordon Tracy
Comments: 3
Kudos: 14





	International Heist

**Author's Note:**

> (To clarify, the only brothers that are actually related in this fic are Alan and Gordon)

Meeting in a dark alley at night may be a cliche, but it's functional. It's also raining, which is unfortunate, but she can hardly reschedule a meeting with an informant as flighty as this one.

Casey pondered his reliability as she waited. Fuse, as he'd told her to call him, had sounded pretty unsure over the phone, like he wasn't really sure about what he was doing. That could mean one of two things: He was a very nervous person, or he wouldn't snitch unless it was something really big. Well, she supposed it could mean other things, but those two seemed most likely.

She heard footsteps at the entrance of the alley. Heavy, but not in a forceful way. More like the person they belonged to had no stealth training.

"You have a tip for me?" She kept her voice low. Though she wasn't looking in his direction, she could hear him jump in surprise.

"Uh, yeah, right. My boss is planning something."

Casey raised an eyebrow, though he couldn't see it. "Well, that is what bosses tend to do."

"No, I mean... Something big. I'm hardly against the idea of stealing things, or blowing things up. That's kind of my job. But my boss heard about this... weapon. Some kind of dispersal device. I don't know the specifics." He fell silent for a moment. "I don't know what he'll do with it. I just know it ain't what I signed up for."

"Your boss," Casey said, thoroughly intrigued. "What's their name?" If she was familiar with them, it was one less complication in forming a plan.

"I mean, I'm not sure what it says on his birth certificate, but he tends to go by Jimmy Arnold in private. You'll probably be more familiar with his alias though." Casey _swore_ he paused for dramatic effect. "The Hood."

* * *

Casey's evidence board hadn't seen use in a while. She had people now, not just her in her lonely apartment trying to plan a job. But this, this was personal.

She didn't have a word for the coldness that had gripped her when she heard that name. There was a rabbit hole of memories, of betrayal, and broken promises. But she wouldn't go down it today. Nor any time soon if she had a say in it.

No, today was for working. Fuse had started clamming up after a short time of questioning. Irritating, but she got what she needed. Four weeks and three days from now, The Hood would make his move on a dispersal device perfect for spreading a plague, which was currently located in a G.D.F holding facility. She didn't want to know what they had planned for it. She didn't want to know what _he_ had planned for it. Hell, she didn't know what _she'd_ do with the thing once she got it. But she did know that in four weeks exactly, she'd be stealing it.

Or, a team would be stealing it. Same effect.

Casey pulled her hair back and pinned it up messily. No one to see it now. No one to care. She turned her attention to the pile of files she'd collected.

A team. She had a selection of people working for her already. All excelled in their fields. But she knew in her heart they wouldn't be doing this job. Some were too green, some were too untrustworthy, some were too nice. The excuse didn't matter. Really, she just didn't want her new life, what she'd created, to clash with a ghost from her past. No, she needed people that were unconnected. Separated from this mess.

It really paid to have connections, but there were a lot of factors to consider in that. She didn't need any bleeding hearts working for her. It was an admirable trait she supposed, but too inclined to cause trouble on this job. That said, anyone she worked with needed some kind of moral code. Operating in the grey zone, like her. Anyone too far outside of that might switch sides for their benefit, or take the device for themselves.

She couldn't involve anyone too close to The Hood. She'd mistaken that kind of drive for commitment in the past. It never ended well. That, unfortunately, ruled out some otherwise very capable people, like Kayo Kyrano, and her sometimes partner The Artist. But no matter how much they could bring to the job, involving them was a can of worms Casey wasn't prepared to deal with.

The hardest factor to account for, in her opinion, was peoples' abilities to work together. You could gather the absolute experts of every area, but without teamwork, you'd get nowhere. Social skills weren't exactly something you'd list on a CV, though... Well. Not in her world at least.

Casey split up her pile of files, shoving any candidate not immediately ruled out to the left. She excluded anyone past their prime. She was sure they were still capable, but there lied the problem. They had experience, more than her in some cases, which meant they'd be more likely to question her decisions. Not something she needed in a time crunch.

She dubbed these eliminations the first round, if only so she could say she was moving onto the second one. She dumped the excluded files onto the floor, and turned to the ones that were left.

She had to hand it to Rigby, he was thorough. The files he'd compiled over the years had a surprising amount of intel. Sometimes there was a picture, sometimes there wasn't, and sometimes there was a bad quality CCTV freeze-frame, but there was consistently a last known contact method, some notes on their speciality, and a summary of what side they'd taken on key disputes. Naturally anyone too clearly bigoted was shafted. That wasn't something she had time for.

With most non-contenders taken out, Casey began to split the candidates by skill. There was a specific combination of people she'd need. A getaway driver, certainly. But sailors and pilots? They weren't of use.

There were a few people that caught her eye. Brandon Berrenger, Scott Tracy, Adri Kwark. She didn't entertain Berrenger for very long, given his well-known tendency to act up and draw attention. Kwark was a tougher dismissal. By all accounts she was a good driver, but Casey didn't know anyone that had worked with her. Ultimately, she was just too unfamiliar to trust with a job like this. Tracy had maybe the least sparkling driving resume, but she'd heard good things about his determination and skill from people she knew. He was worth a call, at minimum.

A spot she tended to struggle to fill was the hacker. Or, hackers, depending on the job, but it seemed unlikely this time around. The issue with people that work online is, well, they work online. People will claim responsibility for jobs, but there's no way to know they aren't lying, and often people who 'work' with them only talk over the phone, which is _not_ a sufficient gauge of character. Whenever Casey hired a hacker, she met them in person, without fail. It's much harder for them to lie to her that way.

She does need one for this job, though. She'd worked for the G.D.F before, and they took cybersecurity seriously. With that in mind, she picked out some possibilities.

There was an... engineer, it appeared, called Brains. Casey noted that hacking was listed as one of his skills, but a quick glance at the rest of his file showed him to be much too sentimental. He was out. There weren't many hackers she'd consider suitable for the job, but the codename EOS was familiar. She was sure she'd worked on a job with them years ago. She could consider them an option.

Of course, when stealing something, some actual, well, _thieves_ , were useful. There was no shortage of those in her circle. She'd worked many a job with Scraps, who seemed to have an endless supply of trivia to talk about, and Dobbs and Reece, who were... eccentric. Gomez was well known, but for all the wrong reasons, given he consistently betrayed his teammates and rarely stayed on the same side. This job was going to require a special kind of thievery though. She needed improvisation, stealth and conviction. Things that a duo like The Terrible Two could provide. They had an excellent track record, especially considering they were relatively new to the scene, only doing their first job a little over two years ago.

She was wildly hoping that no one would clash heads. And she hated to rely on hope, so Casey also decided to involve Penny. She'd been a cure-all for group disagreements in the past, which couldn't be anything but beneficial right now.

With the selected folders set to one side, Casey grabbed her phone. She had a lot of calls to make.

* * *

Havoc was fairly used to her boss's mood swings. One minute he was smirking and in control, next minute he'd lost composure and was shouting at some poor soul that dropped the ball on a job, which was sometimes her. What she was not used to, however, was the looks that Fuse kept shooting him. Several times a minute, he'd just turn around from what he was working on and watch the Hood nervously, as if expecting to be caught doing something he shouldn't be.

She didn't say anything all through the morning, just watched. But by noon she'd had enough.

As was tradition by this point, she and her brother ate lunch by the river. Fuse usually would never shut up, even with the threat of harm, but today he hadn't said a word. It was disconcerting, to say the least.

"Fuse," She said sharply. He jumped in surprise. "What is it?"

Fuse tried to look unbothered, unconvincingly. "What's what?"

"You've been acting weird all morning. It's irritating," _And I'm worried_ , she wanted to say, but she never would.

"I'm just, uh, tired," It was a lame excuse if she'd ever heard one.

"Oh no, I've seen you tired. You get petty and even louder, not quiet."

She struggled to read Fuse's facial expression in the next few moments. But then he relented.

"You know the new job Hood brought me in on?" Oh yes, she knew. Her exclusion had annoyed her to no end. She only nodded, though.

"It's kinda... dodgy. And I know, that's literally our jobs, but..."

"But it's more heavy than usual?" At Fuse's nod, Havoc continued. "It's not a nuke is it?"

"Nah, nah, it's not a nuke. It's um, it's an... Atmospheric Dispersal Device. I mean, I think that's what it's called." He seemed to consider how to continue. "You know how in those old movies, the bad guys have a thing that causes a disease epidemic?"

Usually, Havoc would comment on Fuse's use of the word epidemic. But sue her, she's a little distracted. "He wants to make a bloody plague?"

"Well, I'm not sure if he wants to use it or just sell it, but... yeah, that's probably gonna be the end result." Havoc's only thoughts were curse words. God the second she thought she had the Hood figures out...

"That's not why I was acting so weird though," Havoc nearly misses what Fuse says. He's speaking quietly. "I might have tipped someone off about it."

God, he was going to be the death of her... "You what?!"

"Look, if someone happens to steal the thing before Hood can, no one can really be at fault." Havoc stares at him. That line of reasoning is somewhere between incredibly stupid, and weirdly smart. After a moment, she sighs.

"Jesus Christ, Fuse." Neither of them says anything else. Havoc finds a rock next to her. She throws it into the river, watches the ripples that spread out.


End file.
